Slexie Makes it through the Crash
by Yolanda Bush
Summary: in this story, however improbable it is, lexie survives the plane crash, is freed from the wreck. Mark lives as well and they all go home happy and alive and are completely fine after the ordeal, with a matter of time.
1. Chapter 1: We're meant to be

Chapter one: The Crash

(Note before you read this, yes I know this is probably improbable if not impossible but all I needed was for lexie to just live and that didn't happen so im going to write this and embed it in my brain so that I can at least believe that it is so. I don't care about all the haters telling me im overreacting. Lexie was my favorite character and slexie is my number one ship for a couple out of like any tv show and now both of those are over so im upset. I honestly don't give a shit if any of this cant be possible im saving lexie so no one judge me! ) also I've extended lexie's so called death scene and added more emotion and more that should be there because shonda did not even do that scene right! I don't care what people say. I mean Meredith didn't even say anything to her. She just ran off to find Derek. That was harsh.

"Mark," Lexie said.

"Cristina's gonna be back any minute," Mark ignored her.

"Mark," She repeated.

"She's gonna be back and we're going to get you stabilized. You're gonna be fine, okay?" He informed with certainty.

"Nuh...No Mark,"

"In just a few minutes, okay?" He assured and then turned his head around to see if she was back yet. "She's coming back any minute,"

"Mark...I'm…I'm dying," Lexie told him. The words shocking Mark.

Lexie's breath started to quicken as Mark turned his head back to her, his face was fixed into a look of surprise and confusion. "What? No you're not," He quickly put out.  
"Mhm," Lexie confirmed. Her chest heaved from the pain. "I am. Puh…Puh…Please," She began, but the shortness of breath and pain made it hard for her to speak. It also didn't help that she'd begun to cry. "Tell Meredith…That I love her…And that…She was a good… Sister….And Please…Tell my dad,"

"You're not dying. You're going to be fine," Mark said in a sweet and gentle sounding voice in his oblivion, unable to except the probable fact.

But Lexie didn't look convinced. She moved her shaking hand slowly, closer to Mark. "Hold my hand,"

Mark looked down at her hand that was opened wide, waiting for him. He gave it a funny look at them and then pulled his own hands back and say, "I'm not holding your hand because you're not dying."

But Lexie still knew that he was wrong. She was dying. She didn't know when it would happen but she feared she didn't have much time left, so If she was going to die she wanted to hold Mark one last time.

"Hold my…Hand," She repeated waving it closer to him while her eyes glanced down. Tears dripped down her eyes. The position she was in made it even harder for her to see because the tears would pool in her eyes.

"No..You're not dying. Do you hear me? You don't die today," Mark stated confidently with a serious face as he stared into the scared eyes of the woman he loved. He then stood up from where he was laying down next to Lexie.

Lexie watched as he did so and her eyes rolled over and closed form the worry and fear she felt for Mark. As he clutched the plane and tried to lift it Lexie could hear his screams of pain. Those hurt almost more than the pain she felt from being trapped underneath the darned thing.

The pain griped Mark the worst this time. It knocked the breath right out of him and he nearly toppled over. He stood for a moment leaning against the scrap metal, trying to regain his breath and let his heart stop racing so fast and then as he lost all hope he unsteadily laid back down next to Lexie and picked up her hand, squeezing it tightly between his as the tears began to flow again….For both of them.

"I love you," Mark stated to Lexie with emotion.

Lexie began to shake her head as she replied, "You don't have to say it…Just because I… Said it,"

"I do…I love you. I love you. I have always been in love with you. I will always be in love with you," Mark cried with certainty.

Those words made Lexie smile, "Yeah?" Her voice lightened as she asked.

"Yeah," Mark assured, and tightened his grip on her hand even more, "Which is why you have to stay alive. We…we….We're gonna get married." He shouted out, his face lifting from the dreary look he'd had on. Lexie's eyes had started to glaze over but as she heard this her heart almost dropped and her face froe in shock.

"And you're gonna be an amazing surgeon," He predicted. She gave a large smile at this. "And we're going to have two or three kids,"

"So…Sofia can…Have…Siblings," Lexie spoke her words spaced far apart from her breathlessness.

"Yeah," Mark smiled back with her, "A sister and two brothers,"

"What are their names?" Lexie asked him.

Mark took a minute to think and then started to tell her, "Well for a girl and two boys…Um Janey, she's our oldest. She…She takes after her mom…She looks just like you. She has the same beautiful and long brown hair and those eyes of yours. And of course your smile. And she's just as sweet as you. She wants to be like her parents but instead of healing humans she wants to be a vet. And her favorite animal; she loves horses. And I mean loves. Her whole room is themed off of them and all she ever wants for her birthday is a pony."

"I always wanted a pony too. We really are alike then," Lexie spoke up in an almost delirious way as she rested with her eyes closed for a few seconds but continued to listen to every words Mark said.

"Yeah. And our boys. Mark Jr is the second oldest. He's more like his Daddy. And he's always modeling himself after me. He's got more of my features too. My blonde hair and blue eyes. He's kind of the outlier in the family because he's the only one that looks like me, our youngest…Uh…Caleb, he's more like you too. He has your brown eyes and hair and your little button nose. Mark Jr is very protective of the whole family. He always tries to wait up at night so that he can see both of us before he goes to sleep but he gets too tired sometimes on our late nights at the hospital. He plays tough guy… But at heart he's just a big softy."

"Just like his Dad," Lexie cut in and opened her eyes to see Mark's reaction.

"Yeah. Just like his Dad," Mark realized and agreed. "Now for our youngest…Caleb I think I said. He's the most adorable little boy that you ever did see. He's got that little boy voice that just makes you wanna laugh when he talks. And he's got big puffy cheeks and a little bowl cut for his hair. He's more on the sensitive side. He's always getting mad at Mark Jr whenever he tries to rough house him. He's got a bad thumb sucking habit too. We try to keep him from doing it but he gets fussy whenever we try to stop him. And another bad habit he has is sleeping in the bed with us. He gets nightmares and so we let him stay with us because he's just so cute that we can't resist." Mark took a pause and they both stared lovingly at eachother. "We got a cozy house just down the street from Callie and Arizona and Sofia so our kids can see their big sis all the time. And Meredith and Derek are just a few miles away so they can see their cousin Zola too."

"Landon," Lexie pushed out, "That's…The name…My…Parents ha..ha…ad…p… picked out for me because they… weren't sure if I'd be a boy or a girl because they wanted it to be… a… surprise. So it was Alexandra for a girl and Landon for a boy….But my Da..Dad was…Sssss…So….Sure…That I'd be a boy. He told me when I was about six about that and so I'd run around the house screaming "I'm Landon" over and over again because I knew how much he wanted a son and I felt bad that he never got one. So…If he…Were to have… A Grandson. I think he'd like it if we named him…Landon." Lexie fought to speak. Her breaths felt like they were exploded in her throat. Her chest heaved up and down and made it even harder to articulate. This was what death felt like.

"Mark Junior, Janey and Landon it is then," Mark confirmed.

"That's nice," She smiled with joy and laughed, but then she couldn't catch her breath and started to wheeze.

"We're going to be happy Lex. You and me. We're going to have the best life Lexie, you and me. We're going to be so happy. So you can't die okay? Cause we're supposed to end up together….We're meant to be," Mark shook his head as he whispered his words to Lexie.

"Meant to be… " Lexie said with assurance and smiled. [ sidebar thought: (LOL BUT F U SHONDA COS SHE DOESN'T DIE IN MY WORLD)] Her eyes slowly started to close. Mark watched and cried, but as he looked all around the tiny space she was trapped in he noticed something. Maybe he was getting at this all wrong? He can't physically lift the entire plane off of Lexie but if he Meredith and Yang all worked together could they possibly get her free somehow?

"Lexie. Wait. Answer me." Mark lightly tapped her pale skinned cheek to awake her.

"Wha?" She said drowsily.

"Tell me something. Your legs, can you move them at all?" He inquired anxiously.

Lexie focused very hard and then answered, "Yeah. A little. I can wiggle them a bit."

"That's good! That means the plane isn't crushing your legs!" Mark exclaimed.

"How…DO…You…Figure?" She choked on a lumped in her throat as she asked.

"It means the plane isn't resting completely on your legs. There might be enough space for us to wiggle you out if Cristina and Meredith lift the plane just a little. This could work. Lexie, we're gonna get you out. Just hold on!" Mark yelled over excitedly. Then he screamed as loud as he could for Cristina and Meredith to come.

End of chapter one. LEXIE AND MARK LIVE.


	2. Chapter 2: Thank God, we're surgeons

Meredith and Cristina appeared before Mark's eyes as they came running through the woods. Meredith was using a large stick to help her walk and Cristina had her arm in the home-made sling. Mark hoped his idea would work. It had to work. It was the only way to save her.

"Mark what is it?" Meredith screamed, "Oh God, is she okay?"

"NO! She doesn't have much time left! We have to work quickly." Mark shouted.

"Mark….We already tried. We can't get her out. We aren't strong enough." Cristina stated.

"I have a new approach. I know we can do it this time." Mark assured.

"We might as well try. For Lexie." Meredith said enthusiastically, praying to God that this would work and that her sister would live.

Mark lead them closer to the wreckage. Before Mark could say his plan Meredith dropped to the dusty ground to see her sister. She was alive but barely. She was holding on though.

"Lex! Lex!" Meredith chanted to wake up her unconscious sister.

Lexie's eyes slowly parted. Her mouth was hanging open. Her lips were so dry and cracked that it pained Meredith just to look at the bloody mess. Her sister was literally under a plane. That's scary.

"Mer," She said, her eyes starting to close again from the exhaustion and death that seemed to be easing its way in, "I'm so glad to…See you…One last….Time."

"This isn't the last time Lexie. I promise you."

"Well ofcourse not.A long long time from now when you're….80 years…Old and dying from alzheimer's I'll be there to….Wuh welcome…You," Lexie joked.

"No you won't because you'll be right there next to me. We'll be cooped up in the same nursing center complaining about the food and the drafty rooms to the workers and bickering at each other like old women do." Meredith laughed and smiled through her tears. Lexie tried to laugh but she just winced from the pain.

"Just hold on Sis. Just a little longer. I promise. I promise you. You'll be going home soon. Real soon," Meredith chanted.

"Meredith get over here," Mark pointed to the open space next to Cristina at the front of the broken piece of the plane. Meredith got up and stood where Mark commanded her to. Then Mark got down on the ground and slid into the small space Lexie was trapped in.

"Lex, I'm here. I'm gonna get you out." Mark said to her as he got behind her and slid underneath her, holding her under the arms. Her head lolled and her body was limp. She only murmured, but didn't say full words.

"CRISTINA! MEREDITH!" Mark yelled to get their attention, "When I yell go, lift as hard as you can! Now this thing may not be so stable so when I give you the word run, get as far away from it as possible. Let's do this,"

Mark readied himself and got a firm grip then he called out GO! Immediately Cristina and Meredith pushed up the front end of the plane with as much force as they could possibly get to come out of their weak injured bodies. Every one of them was grunting through the pain, even Lexie who was near the end of the road. Finally with all the pushing they did the plane budged just enough for Mark to wiggle Lexie's legs out.

"RUN!" Mark gave the girls their signal. Mark could feel the structure beginning to rock as he pulled the thing that was keeping it balanced out. Did he have enough time? Could he make it out before the thing would collapse? Mark didn't have enough time to worry about these things. All he knew was that he had to get Lexie out. That's all he knew and that's all he cared about. As the cracking noise coming from the tilting plane was sent off into the air Mark lunged out from the small confined space, holding Lexie in his arms. He sprinted away as fast as he could and made it all the way to where Cristina and Meredith were nervously and anxiously awaiting before the wreck came crumbling down to the ground…Again. Lexie was unconscious. Mark felt overjoyed to see that she was in one piece though. Her arm was still there, although it was hanging on by a thread and had a deep gash almost to the bone in it. Her legs were still intact although in the blue, now red-stained scrubs, he could tell that they were swollen in the least. She was alive though. But then again that meant nothing if they couldn't do something to cure her. She'd be dead within minutes. It wa a wonder she'd made it this long. Mark looked up from where he was kneeling over Lexie on the grassy plain to face Cristina and Meredith. They were staring in awe. Proably shocked that his plan actually worked.

"I know we're all tired….But if we don't do something fast….She's gonna die for real." Mark commented.

"Lexie diagnosed herself with a massive hemothorax," Cristina remembered. "We can make a drain and do the tube thoracostomy but…It'll be messy. And out of the hospital environment who knows if it'll work. She could develop an infection or any number of things. But it's our only shot. Then we'll have to stitch up her arm to keep from massive blood loss. We'll have to do something about her legs if she wants to keep them."

"Let's start with the thoracostomy to stop the blood accumulating!" mark put out.

"Alright I brought the stuff like you said Mark. We can still get fluids and oxygen." Cristina announced.

"Alright perfect! We can use a line to do the chest tube!" Mark exclaimed.

"Yeah but this tube won't be as effective as hospitals. Chest tube clogging or occlusion can lead to worse outcomes as it prevents adequate drainage of the pleural space, contributing to the problem of retained hemothorax." Cristina threw out the information she knew, "We'll have to have someone constantly monitoring it in case something should go wrong."

"Mark can do that," Meredith suggested.

The three began working on Lexie. Once the chest tube was inserted successfully everyone took a second to breathe and smile at their accomplishment. Then they got to work sterilizing and suturing her extremely wounded arm.

"Now the legs," Cristina informed. Mark pulled off the scrub pants to reveal the gruesome sight. Her legs were completely bruised purplish blue, they were puffy and swelled up to two times its normal size and when Cristina reached down to feel the flesh she noticed that it was completely hard.

"Oh God," She let slip out her mouth.

"What! What is it?" Meredith yelled, unaware of the severity.

"Compartment syndrome," Mark announced from knowledge of the serious condition in whichthe compression may lead tissue death from lack of oxygenation due to the blood vessels being compressed by the raised pressure within the compartment, if not treated early enough.

"We've got to move fast. I mean lightning fast," Cristina informed.

"Well what do we do? Is a fasciotomy in the middle of the dirty woods even sanitary!" Meredith squealed.

"Of course not but either we cut into the fascia and relieve the tension or we let her legs fall off." Cristina sarcastically mocked.

"You found a scalpel? How convenient." Mark announced as Cristina pulled a shiny scalpel out from the bag she had all the useful objects stored in and began to sterilize it with alcohol.

"Well I don't travel without my lucky scalpel tucked away. It was a good thing I found the bag I had it hidden in." Cristina informed while drying the blade.

"Lucky scalpel? What kind of monster are you? You sound like a serial killer," Mark said in a creeped out tone.

"Would you like to make more jokes while I have a very pointy object in my hand?" Cristina turned to him and yelled,

"Uh no," He said, and scooted backwards a bit.

"It's going to bleed a lot so we need to have the gauze and the blankets ready. Once we get a bit of the bleeding under control we'll stitch it up. God it's a good thing we're surgeons or we wouldn't have any of the supplies we needed," Mark commented.

"Let's get this over with," Cristina murmured and aimed the scalpel towards Lexie's leg.


	3. Chapter 3: Everyone has to help

Once Meredith, Cristina and Mark were finished performed the emergency procedures to save Lexie they cleaned up, covered her surgical wounds and prayed it would be enough to work.

"We still have to find Derek," Meredith reminded as Cristina helped her up.

"Well, let's go right now while Lexie's still unconscious," Cristina suggested.

"Will you be okay here alone with her Mark or should we move her back to where Arizona is? I mean we should really check on her again too," Meredith stated.

"She's fine. I saw her when I went back to get the supplies. A broken leg and some scrapes." Cristina informed.

"I'll be fine here," Mark answered. "You two go. Find him before its too late,"

"Thanks Mark," Meredith thanked and then jogged off with Cristina, still using the large branch to support her injured leg.

(Keep in mind that in this part most of mer and cristina's conversation is out of context from the actual episode and I've just reworded it so that they don't talk about lexie being truly dead BECAUSE SHE IS ALIVE)

Cristina and Meredith were now deep into the wooded area when Meredith swiftly swiveled around to face her friend, who'd been walking behind her.

"DEREK!" Meredith screamed repeatedly into the wilderness, hoping for his sweet voice to reply back.

"I don't understand how…This keeps happening," Cristina muttered to herself as they continued to walk.

"Cristina…We have to find him," Meredith scared voice shouted.

"I'm serious," Cristina retorted, "I do not understand how this keeps happening,"

"We have to find him because I don't think he went for help," Meredith screamed insanely.

"We keep dying. We're in a plane crash Mer," Cristina walked ahead of her friend, but then turned back to say, "Like…Like right now," and then returned to venturing further through the wooded area.

"If he went for help. If Derek went for help he'd have sent a message or something. I mean we have to find him. Something is wrong," Meredith cried while gesticulating.

"I can tell you one thing…When we get out of here I am getting the HELL away from Seattle Grace Mercy Death and I'm never looking back," Cristina said in her rage.

"Cristina," Meredith stopped and cried. Her friend immediately whipped around, "I think Derek is dead. He would've come for us by now. He definitely would've come for us by now. I think he's dead. And Lexie is dying!My husband and my sister are going to be dead! They're both going to die and then we are going to die out here too!We are going to die out her too.…" Meredith screamed in insanity through her frightened tears.

Cristina grabbed her by the shoulder and screamed even louder, "Ok keep it together. Keep it together,"

"NO YOU KEEP IT TOGETHER!" Meredith yelled back, pointing her finger.

"I'm trying!" Cristina moved her hand to cradle Meredith's head, "Keep it together anyways," but Meredith just continued to break down in tears. Meredith wrapped her hand around Cristina's wrist as Cristina repeated for her to keep it together, and rubbed the side of her face.

"My sister is going to be dead," She cried.

"Keep it together anyways,"

"Do you think Derek is dead?" She asked.

Cristina began to cry now too, "I don't know maybe but…I've got PTSD so you know I'm not reliable!"

"Cristina you are still my person, even if I'm not yours"

"Meredith Meredith," Cristina tried to comfort her, "Meredith," but that was when a different voice said Meredith's name. It was a man. The two whipped around to see Derek standing next to a tree, nearly stumbling over. He sighed and looked up at the sky and said, "heard your voice…I thought I was dreaming," Before he started to tip to the side and then clunked out completely on the muddy turf.

"Oh my God," Cristina cried out as her and Meredith raced to help him.

Cristina and Meredith had taken Derek to where Mark and Lexie were. Once they had Derek down on the ground Cristina scurried off to fetch more supplies. She showed up with a brown leather carry-on. She struggled to pull it up the rocky ground with only one good hand but eventually managed and threw the rolling suitcase down to open it. Meredith was sanitizing Derek's mangled hand with alcohol. He screamed from the stinging pain. After stitching up Derek's arm with a safety pin, do to the fact that they'd already used their entire suture kit on Lexie, Meredith began to wrap up the arm while Cristina looked through her bag of goodies.

"Matches, yes God finally. Fire. We can build a fire," Cristina announced in exasperation, holding up the small box to show Meredith.

"We should, they'll see a fire." Meredith agreed. "Let's get a fire started."

"Hey Mark! We…We need to start a fire," Cristina called out to Mark who was sitting a few feet away, up straight against a tree while holding Lexie's hand. Lexie had yet to show any sign of life. She was still unconscious and Cristina hoped it wasn't brain death. Mark had his eyes closed and he was very quiet. He looked sad. He was definitely moping about when he needed to be helping so they could get out of here.

"Mark…Mark," Cristina yelled for him more. Then as she began to uneasily stand up and shove the matches into her coat pocket she screamed, "You have to help."

"I…I'll figure out how to get it started," Meredith offered and was about to stand up when Cristina yelled No repeatedly to keep her from doing it.

"You know what he doesn't get to do this. He doesn't get to stop helping. I'm sorry that he almost lost Lexie but she's your sister and you're still helping. He has to help because the sky is falling. Mark," She began storming towards the dazed man.

"Cristina," Derek said, trying to stop her.

"No, no, no!" Cristina whirled around angrily and then stopped to calm herself down, "You know if there's one thing I've learned with all the…The bombs and the guns to my head and the buses running down my friends is that I am not interested in dying. I want to get out of here. And I want to go home. And everyone has to help."

Meredith stared at her friend and then cast her eyes down .She knew Cristina was right but she also knew that Mark was in no shape. Not only was he sad, he was also exhaustion and extremely paranoid. He needed a break.

"Mark, get up. Get up and help Mark!" Cristina yelled fiercely as she walked up to him. "Get up," but as she bent down to shake him she felt something strange. His body lolled lifelessly. He looked extraordinarily pale and his breathing was off.

"Mark, mark mark." Cristina tried to wake him still as she felt his neck for a pulse. It was weak. She gently took him by his shirt and laid him down flat. Then she took hold of the v-necked dark blue scrub shirt and ripped it, gasping at the sight that lied underneath. His whole chest was splotchy with deep red marks.

"Oh crap, Mer!" She called out.


	4. Chapter 4: We'll get through this

"It's a cardiac tamponade," Cristina looked to confirm after examining Mark's chest wounds.

"Are you sure?" Derek asked.

"Seventy five percent sure…Well…Seventy percent sure," Crisitna announced.

Derek and Meredith both looked up with puzzled faces.

"That's not very sure," Meredith replied.

"Well if you want me to be sure then get me an ultra-sound," Cristina remarked with sass.

Derek stroked his unconscious friends head as Cristina informed that they'd have to drain his pericardial sack and relieve the pressure or else his heart would stop.

"With what?" Derek wondered, as they put the oxygen mask over his mouth, "We don't even have an eighteen gage, spinal needle. Derek was holding a spray bottle when the idea came to him. "Take the top off," Derek said to Cristina. She unscrewed it with one hand and pulled the topper off.

"Use that," Derek pointed to the clear tube.

"Brilliant, brilliant," Cristina praised. They sanitized it and then cut a small hole into his chest for the tube to be placed through. Mark thrashed as it was done from the pain and began to hyperventilate.

"Try not to move Mark," Cristina held him down.

Meredith wove the short tube in through the bleeding wound as her husband and best friend warned her to be careful not to puncture the heart.

As Meredith thrust it in deeper a spurt of blood erupt from the tube and then Mark began to lurch forward while screaming.

"That's good. That means you got it in." Cristina assured.

"Ok we need to check on Lexie now," Meredith remembered.

"Right," Cristina agreed as she stood up to do so. She walked the few steps over to where the comatose Lexie Grey was lying and bent down next to her. "Her breath sounds are equal. That's fantastic. That means that the tachycardia has been resolved," She shouted out loud for everyone to hear. "Chest tube is clear. Perfect." Then Cristina pulled back the blue airplane blanket to examine her arm and legs. "Still some bruising on the legs, I don't think that it's from the compartment syndrome though. It's probably trauma from the crash. I wouldn't worry too much about it. The skin around the stitches on the arm are a little irritated and reddish. I'll just take care of that too make sure there's no chance of infection."

"Ok thanks Cristina," Meredith thanked as her and Derek finished their work with Mark. "We should transport them both. We need to be back at the sight of the crash so we can all be together and find a way out of this hell."

"How can three injured people carry two unconscious people?" Cristina stood up to ask.

"We'll make two trips," Meredith answered her question with a simple explanation.

"Well we can't leave one of them alone while the other is carried off. It's too dangerous don't you think?" She asked a follow-up question.

"Alright then, you stay with Lexie while me and Derek carry Mark. Then we'll come back and take Lexie and the rest of the supplies with us,"

"Fine," Cristina reluctantly agreed. She feared that if Lexie should happen to perish in the few short minutes they were gone it would be all her fault.

Meredith and Derek carried Mark back through the words on the stretcher they'd salvaged from the plane. He'd been regaining consciousness on the last part of their walk and had begun murmuring things like, "Lexie. Help. Wuh. She's. Where." In his neurotic state.

"Mark, Lexie's alright. She's not dead. Please don't put any more stress on yourself. You already gave yourself heart trauma. You had a cardiac tamponade," Meredith leaned towards Mark's face as she carried the stretcher to inform him.

"She's…Dying…Though."

"You don't know that Mark. She's just trying to heal herself. She's still breathing, still has a heartbeat….So she's alive," Meredith coaxed him into trusting her word.

"We're both dying," He then said.

"No you're both going to be fine," Meredith fired back.

"Just a few more minutes Mark. " Derek said, hoping it would shut him up.

"We're gonna die out here. In the wilderness….Like filthy animals," Mark whispered as he stared up at the sky.

"Stop it Mark. Stop with the negativity." Derek yelled at his friend.

"It's just reality is all Derek," Mark remarked at his friend.

"Sometimes impossible things happen," Derek sassed him back.

"We're here. Both of you stop fighting. You're in no condition to." Meredith cut in. Meredith and Derek struggled with their last steps towards Arizona as their weak arms struggled to support Mark's weight. Arizona was luckily still fully conscious. She was alerted as she spotted them walking towards her.

"Oh my God, what happened?" She asked after seeing Mark in his horrible condition. Derek and Meredith lowered him to the ground right next to Arizona.

"He had cardiac tamponade. Luckily we had Cristina though." Meredith informed.

"He's going to be alright?" Arizona inquired.

"We think so. He just needs to recuperate." Meredith assured with her best opinion.

"And Cristina's alright?" Arizona noticed the lack of her presence.

"She's fine." Meredith answered vaguely.

"And Lexie? Where's Lexie?" Arizona asked.

Everyone went silent, dumbfounded and caught by the otherwise simple question. "Where is Lexie?" Arizona repeated with worry from their silence.

"Lexie is dead," Mark shouted out, coming back into consciousness. Arizona pushed back tears and gasped.

"No. Mark. She is not dead. She is going to make it. I know she is." Meredith fought back.

"She's dying. We both are." Mark argued stubbornly.

"Mark, cut it out. You are not dying. We're not gonna let that happen," Derek fought him from where he was now sitting on the ground to regain his breath.

"Well what happened? Cristina only told me that it's not good. What does that mean?" Arizona further questioned.

Meredith gathered her thoughts and then said, "She was crushed under a large chunk of the plane, from the waist down. We managed to free her but... We don't know. We just can't tell yet. She hasn't woken up or show any signs of brain activity yet. Cristina's monitoring her as we speak. And me and Derek are going back for her right now. We're going to stick together and we'll get through this."


	5. Chapter 5: If

"Oh thank God you're back," Cristina wailed in relief at the sight of Derek and Meredith carrying the now empty stretcher her way, "I thought she was gonna die on my watch,"

"No. There's no chance I'm letting that happen," Meredith responded as her and Derek set the flat stretcher down on the ground next to Lexie, "Let's move quickly. We can all be together in one spot and start a fire by nightfall….Maybe just maybe someone will find us….Anyone."

"Good plan," Cristina agreed as the three began to load Lexie onto the stretcher.

"How many matches do you have?" Derek asked Cristina as they began to move.

"Not many…Maybe7 or 8,"

"We'll have to make do. We might be able to find some kind of enhancer in the mash pit though," Derek suggested.

The three carried Lexie much easier than Mark and were back to their grounds in no time. Arizona immediately gave a look of sheer relief as they arrived; she even sighed and closed her eyes for a minute to hold back tears.

"How's Lexie? Is she alive?" Arizona questioned in fear.

"Barely," Cristina muttered.

"Hey, don't say that." Meredith said in offense.

"Sorry,"

Arizona had Mark cradled in her lap, he was now unconscious.

"So…Let's get a fire started," Meredith said, nearly sobbing.

"Oh I've got the matches," Cristina remembered, and reached into her jacket pocket. "We have five left," She announced upon handing them to Derek.

"Make it big so they see," Meredith gave Derek a tip.

All the while Jerry sat silently in the cockpit where he was trapped, listening intently to a background noise he thought he could hear.

"What happened to the four hours?" Arizona cried to him.

"It's been more than four hours," Meredith announced with certainty.

"She…Just little," jerry fired back at them so they'd stay quiet.

"What does that mean? Does that mean they're not coming for us? You said four hours. You said four hours TOPS," Arizona shouted while Cristina lifted Mark's head up and placed a rag beneath it to keep his head tilted upwards as he slowly regained consciousness.

Everyone looked like a reck by now. Mark's face had lost it's humanly color and looked purple. Arizona's face was covered in large red scrapes and her eyes looked God awful. And of course Lexie barely even looked like a living person any longer.

"Ch…Chopper!" Jerry screamed as loud as he could upon confirming what the noise he heard was. It was the sound of helicopter blades.

Everyone looked up at the sky at that very moment. "Oh my God it's a helicopter!" Cristina confirmed it first.

Meredith screamed first. And then everyone joined in shouting help as loud as they could in hopes of drawing the planes attention. They waved and flailed their arms until Jerry told them to get the flare gun.

Meredith got to the gun first. She tried shooting it up at the endless sky but nothing happened. "Why isn't it working?" she yelled through the commotion.

"Shoot it again. Shoot it again." Cristina told her. And she did but still…Nothing. Then Derek came up from behind her and said, "Give it to me," He took it and shot it as Meredith had, yet it still continued to malfunction.

In failure Derek dropped his arm down. "Oh God no! Come back!" Yang cried out.

Derek then proceeded to chuck the gun as far as he could with his good arm out of anger.

Nightfall came and the surgeons were still stranded in the open wilderness without a soul knowing of their recent struggles. Smoke was still rising from the differen assorted chunks of the plane and the small fire they had managed to build. But even so it wasn't enough to alert anyone that was around. Even so they were still a bunch of helpless people stuck in the middle of no where.

Derek had gone to the window of the cockpit where Jerry was stuck to talk to him.

"They don't know where we are….They don't know where we are because the transmitter was probably damaged in the crash and if the transmitter is damaged then…."

"We could be here for days," Derek finished Jerry's sentenced on speculation of what he was about to get at.

"Yeah,"

Meanwhile Meredith and Cristina were huddled around the puny fire, Lexie straddled across Meredith's lap in her comatose state. They were in complete silence when all of a sudden Meredith said one simple word….Zola.

Cristina turned towards her friend who was obviously worried about her baby daughter. "Owen has got to have figured out we're missing. I know he sent someone." And then turned back to stare at the small flames.

Meredith held back a tear for a moment, but then gave in and let it fall as she glanced down at her sister. She looked so awful. Her lips were darn near blue from underneath the oxygen mask that was keeping her breathing. Her eyes were still closed, which made Meredith feel like she'd never again see them open. Her baby blue scrubs were stained pinkish red from dried blood, and were also covered in mud and grass. Her wounds that had been repaired to the best of their ability were bandaged but the cloth desperately needed a changing…Unfortunately they had nothing to replace it with. Her skin had turned a ghastly white with dark differen colored bruises and deep cuts. It was clammy and cold, covered in a light sweat to the touch. This state of appearance was nearly too much for Meredith to bear. Each glance at her made her want to break down. Thinking that this decaying figure was once the girl that Meredith knew so well, worked and lived and even shared parentage with was mindblowing to her. It was too difficult for Meredith to comprehend that this shell of a being laying across her lap in a near death state was indeed Lexie Grey. Looking back on all the memories they'd shared made this feel like it was just a figment of her own twisted imagination. She wished that were so but unfortunately this was happening. This was the real world….And this was real life. It was true that their plane crashed, true that 2 of the passengers were in critical condition, true that flare gun malfunctioned and true that they were stranded in the middle of a forrest without a source of food, clean water, shelter or communication. But the real question was, how long could they survive like this? And how long would they _need _to survive this way? Because in just the few short hours that they'd been out here Meredith had already lost all hope.

She contemplated everything she could think of as she sat in silence in a trance, staring directly at the small flames of the fire they'd built. She thought about her beautiful baby girl and wondered what would become of her if they were all to die out here. Who would care for her? April? Jackson? Or would she be shipped back to the orphanage she came from? And she pondered the thought of the people back in Seattle carrying on their normal route and living their lives in oblivion to the fact that a plane full of half a dozen of their colleagues had nose-dived into a field and left them stranded without an escape as they slowly perished away.

Then she began to rack her brain to remembere the faces of Arizona, Mark, Lexie, Cristina and Derek before they'd been altered by the crash. Cristina always had that smirk of success on her face as she out-witted and worked her sarcasm on people. She was the kind of surgeon who'd stay in the hospital without making one stop back to her house for 36 hours straight, and now she was a teary-eyed mess as she cried about missing her home. Then there was Derek. He always smiled at the mere sight of her, he put on his happy face even when he was far from being in a good mood. He was gentle and kind and always caring, but he was also tough, and dedicated…With a hint of perfectionism. To see him with such an odious frown plastered across his pale face, his eyes sagging with exhaustion and his arm slung in a cast was both shocking and saddening. Then there was Mark. Mark the strong ladies'man with the good looks and heartbreaking smile was now the one who's heart was breaking. He looked like a different man. In fact he looked like an old man. Who knew someone could age ten years in one day? And that give-in-to –me smile was no longer anywhere to be found. Arizona had begun to show her softer side. She had an expression of worry and pain constantly spread acrossed her cut up face. And quite frequently it looked like she was about to vomit. But Lastly there was Lexie. Where to begin. Just trying to remember her sweet, beauitful face was hard on her. To go from what she used to be this. Why did it have to be? The more she thought, the more she believed Lexie, in the least, would never make it back home. She didn't want that to happen but how could she stop it? She just hoped people would at least honor her by remembering the way she was, and not what became of her. She wanted her to leave the world the way she came into it…As Lexie….Not as that resident that didn't make it through the plane crash of 2012.

Meredith turned away from Cristina as the tears poured. Then she called out her name. Cristina who'd been in her own world looked to see what Meredith wanted. When she realized that Meredith was cryng again she scooted closer to comfort her.

"What is it?" She questioned in a sweet voice.

"Cristina can you do me a favor? Promise me you'll do this for me."

"Of course. Anything you want." Cristina assured.

"If…Lexie dies…Please promise me…Promise that you will remember her how she was before the crash. And when her name comes up in a conversation you won't think of her the way she looks right now….You'll think of her when she was alive and well and…Happy. I don't want her to be thought of this way. Because the people back at home…They didn't have to see her suffer, they didn't see her trapped under the plane, they didn't perform surgery on her in an open field, they didn't hold her as she was comatose. We did. So we're the only ones that will have this locked into our memory."

"I promise," Cristina smiled with her response, "…Look at who the pessismist is now,"

"Hey, I said if," Meredith gave a weak whimper of a laugh as she continued to cry and wipe at her puffy eyes.


	6. Chapter 6: A Long Night

Arizona had nodded off for a moment until she was awoken by the sound of Mark gasping for air.

"Mark?" She asked in alarm, and shook him lightly.

"I should've said it earlier," He said, his eyes still closed. "That I loved her," He opened his eyes to explain what he meant. "I should've said it earlier,"

"Shuh," Arizona started to talk but had to stop as she choked a little, "She knew…I think she knew"

"She didn't know," Mark interrupted. "She didn't know,"

"You're talking as if she is dead Mark. She's not dead. She's still here. She hasn't gone anywhere yet. She is right over there with Cristina and Meredith and Derek. She's going to make it and so are you," Arizona coaxed him. But he didn't seem convinced. He began to drift off again, paying no attention to Arizona's words. "Mark, Mark hold on. Okay?" Arizona struggled, wincing as her face furrowed from pain, "I need you to hold on."

"You'll be okay. You don't need me." Mark gave a smile and then began to close his eyes, "….Take care of our girl,"

"No. Shut up. Shut up. Do you hear me? Shut up,"

"Lexie's waiting for me," Mark looked up, struggling to breathe again.

"She's waiting for you right here Mark. She hasn't gone anywhere. No, Mark Sloan. No. No. Sofia is waiting for you. Callie is waiting for you and I am waiting for you." She cried while rubbing his head, doing anything to keep him focused and responsive…Doing anything to keep him with her. "We're going to go home together. Okay?"

Mark took in a deep inhale and then exhaled with a slow and prolonged okay.

"Arizona smiled and nodded in tears repeating okay over and over again, praying that Mark would make it through the night.

Meanwhile in Seattle Grace while Ben and Bailey made up in the OR, Callie flopped down onto her bed in the new sexy lingerie she'd bought, eagerly awaiting her partners return and the rest of the residents minus 3 were seated at the restaurant along with Richard Webber, Chief Owen Hunt sat at his desk after the long day that had just unfolded before him. His day had been so busy that he hadn't even been able to take a lunch-break. He couldn't remember the last time he'd eaten but he still had a butt-load of paperwork to do and wanted to get it done by the end of the night.

He clicked the message button on his desk phone while rolling up the sleeves to his collar shirt, making himself comfortable before diving into his paperwork. The first message began to play as he opened the manila folder, "Good Morning Doctor Hunt, This is Doctor Sheen over at Boise Memorial. I just wanted to double check what time your surgeons were set to arrive today." The female voice spoke.

He looked to the phone with little interest, assuming the dilemma had been resolved throughout the day. But then the next message played after a loud beep, "Doctor Hunt, Doctor Sheen again. Still no word from your surgeons. I'm going to check with the airport…See if the weather held them up,"

That struck as strange to Hunt but he continued on with his work until he heard the first words of the third message. And it was the same woman speaking as she said "This is Doctor Sheen again." Hunt immediately dropped what he was doing and turned his attention towards the phone. "We're starting to get a bit concerned here," Was all she said.

Arizona heaved a loud mind-splitting cough as she sat beside Mark who'd again fallen asleep. Cristina and Meredith were still sitting at the fire as Derek slept beside Meredith and Lexie.

"I'm hungry," Cristina muttered.

"Think of something else," Meredith advised her.

"I'm hungry," She repeated.

"I have a stick of gum," Meredith offered.

"I don't want gum I want food," Cristina whined.

A sudden gust of wind blew at that very moment, weakening the already small fire that glowed before them.

"Oh shoot," Cristina yelped, poking at it with a large tree branch with hopes that it'd come back to life, but instead it made a few sparks and then died down even more to an itty bitty blue flame. Cristina yanked the matches box back out of her pocket and shook the cardboard canister, only hearing a very faint clanking noise inside. She then proceeded to open the box to find the ugly truth. "Great…We have one match left," she pointed out to Meredith, noticing that Meredith too had fallen asleep. "Hey!" She exclaimed, smacking her arm. Meredith jolted up. "No sleeping,"

"Yeah," Meredith shook her head in agreement.

"We have to stay awake. Derek. Derek you too," She leaned over towards him and shouted, "I want everyone conscious," She then yelled to the heavens to inform the entire party.

Arizona jolted up but Mark stayed unconscious. Derek heard her but was too tired and delirious to open his eyes. He'd begun to dream again and murmured the word, "boats,"

"Mer. Light the match. Be careful…It's our last one," Cristina informed, holding the box and match out for her to take. Meredith was so tired that simply lighting the match seemed like such extraneous effort, but she didn't disagree with her friend. She unraveled her hands from the warm blankets that she'd wrapped them up in and took the items from Cristina. Her hands had already grown stiff and cold from the night's bitter chill. She felt her body start to tremble and shake as she leaned forward a little and struck the flimsy wooden match on the side of the box. It lit in a brilliant flame. As Meredith leaned even closer to the ground it automatically blew out before she could use it. Her and Cristina sat in suspense, stunned by the damning outcome of their very last source for fire. After their moment of depression they leaned back against the log they were using to sit back on and sighed in defeat. Then after a few more seconds Meredith reached into her pocket and took out the piece of gum she had, and split it in two. She handed one piece of the gum to Cristina and popped the other into her mouth and began to chew the minty substance. Then the two girls put their heads together, continuing to sigh. It was going to be a very long night.


	7. Chapter 7: A second of Consciousness

Meredith awoken as dawn broke through the barren autumn fields. Nearly the exact moment that her eyes parted Cristina began to speak. She's been watching her for hours, waiting for her to awak so she could say what was on her mind.

"You fell asleep," She murmured.

"I'm sorry…What…What time do you think it is?" Meredith addressed the situation lightly.

"I don't know…Morning!" Cristina yelled with tears, "I stayed awake all night. You didn't."

"I know. I'm sorry. You could've woke me up," Meredith said back in annoyance as she tried to sit up.

"I wanted to. You don't have any idea how much I wanted to." Cristina complained with her teeth clenched.

"Then why didn't you?"

"Because I figured…that I wouldn't be the biggest bitch on the planet if I startled my best friends awake in the middle of the night in the middle of a carnivorous animal infested field in sub-zero freaking degree weather and let her open her eyes from the blackness of her sleep to a world even darker. It was like the inside of my own eyes was a lighter shade of black than this goddamn place. I could hear the wolves all night. I kept thinking…Maybe one of them will find us...And then what? I wouldn't have been able to see them and I probably couldn't have saved the lives of 5 sleeping people." Cristina rambled in hysteria.

"Ok! Ok, Cristina!" Meredith leaned over and shook her friend, "Snap out of it. Like you said, we need to keep it together. You're losing it…And you're the sanest one out of us all, so you have to stay calm. You can't lose it. You're our only hope."

"I can't Meredith. I can't stay calm anymore. My body won't let me. I keep trying but it's like I have two personalities and one is taking over Cristina Yang and turning her into a wreck," Cristina tried to explain.

"We'll be home soon. I know it." Meredith assured. Meredith gave her dear friend the best look of hope and love that she could. Fortunately for her it worked. Cristina's tense body sighed as a reaction to her emotions. She realized she was being inconsiderate.

"Arizona! Is Mark okay?" Cristina screamed without turning her head. Arizona, who had just begun to wake up, was forced into consciousness by Cristina's loud screech.

"Yeah. He's semi-conscious. But he looks a little better than he did last night. He isn't so…Pale. Maybe he's getting…Better," She shouted back in response.

"Meredith…I think maybe you should get up and walk around a little. I don't want you getting a blood clot out here." Yang then proceeded to recommend.

"Ok. But you'll have to take my place with Lexie," Meredith answered while fidgeting with the covers so she could gently mover her sister's head. As she began to do so, she thought she heard something. It was like a soft mumble. A very faint and low humph coming from Lexie's lips. Meredith stood hunched over in disbelief and she listened closely, waiting for another noise to make its way out of Lexie's vocal chords.

"Did you hear that?!" Meredith looked up at Cristina in astonishment to make sure she wasn't imagining things.

"Hear what?" Cristina asked with her arms folded.

"It was Lexie!" Meredith shouted with certainty.

Cristina simultaneously dropped down beside Meredith and said, "No way. Are you positive?"

"I think so," Meredith cried, holding her sister's head up and cradling her neck.

"What's going on?" Arizona shouted to them out of curiosity to what was happening.

"Mer?" Derek said his wife's name in a concerned but also sleepy tone as he awoke to shouting women filling his ears with their shrill cacophonies.

"She made a noise. I think she's trying to wake up. Oh my God!" Meredith continued to squeal and then chanted her sister's name, hoping it would get her to wake up.

Lexie parted her lips and made an "ugh" this time instead of a "umph."

"Come on Lex. Wake up. Come on Sweetie." Meredith stroked the side of her sister's head, combing her messy brown and blood-red stained locks of hair.

Then her eyes slowly began to flutter. Meredith's tears continued to drip as she was thrown speechless from her excitement and joy.

"She's waking up! Holy Hell!" Cristina yelled at the top of her lungs. Derek had gotten up to see for himself now. All three of them began to laugh in joy at the sight. Then her eyes were fully open. Even more wide than normal. She was surprised. Of course she should be. The last time her eyes were open she was telling Mark that she was dying, and believing that it would end up that way too.

"Muh…Muh…Me…Mer…Uh…Dith," She finally pushed her sister's name out, choking on her own saliva.

"Yes! Yes Lexie! It's me. It's me Meredith! Oh my gosh. You're alive."

"Huh…How?" Tears began to roll down Lexie's dirty and bloody face.

"I…I don't know." Meredith admitted, "Mark! Lexie is alive! She's awake!"

Mark nearly lurched right up off the ground at that very moment, but Arizona had to hold him back. His heart lurched a little sending a shooting pain up his resting body. "Stay calm Mark. You don't want to put stress on your heart," Arizona informed as a reminder.

"I want to see her. I need to see her," Mark said quietly from his strained vocal chords.

"I told you we'd see each other again," Meredith squeezed her sister's hands.

Lexie began to cry even harder and gave a hint of laughter, but it hurt too much so she had to stop. She closed her eyes to block out the pain, but as she did so she began to fade out of consciousness again.

"No Lexie! Stay with me! Please," Meredith cried in fear.

"She's still alive," Derek confirmed, checking her pulse. "She just needs more rest is all. She's healing herself,"


	8. Two days passed

2 days had passed. 2 long and torturous days in which Cristina Yang had not spent one second sleeping. She was becoming delirious. Talking to herself, staring into the distance, shaking horribly, even pacing back and forth for hours muttering silent curses to herself. Meredith Grey had spent much of her time weeping about being stranded away from her daughter and having her sister comatose as well as her husband's arm maimed. Mark was just as comatose as Lexie, except he came out of it a few times and Arizona would try to feed him and give him water. He'd accept it with force, but atleast he was getting proper nutrition. With Lexie…No one could tell. Arizona wasn't doing well either. Her leg had begun to swell and fester. Meredith and Cristina had tried to drain it but they couldn't risk infection so they gave upto keep from making it worse. Jerry was still trapped inside the airplane but Derek continuously brought him water and monitored him to make sure he was alright. At the end of the day the doctors were beginning to have decreased faith in their survival and rescuing. But even worse than that, something was stirring that no one had knowledge of…Until it was too late for anything to be done.

At a few hours after high noon came Cristina's breakdown. She had been pacing in deep thought when all of a sudden she fell silent and still.

"Cristina…Are you alright?" Meredith, who'd caught glimpse of the occurrence asked from the ground where she was seated next to Derek.

"I can't. No. I can't do this. We're never going to be found. WE'RE GOING TO DIE OUT HERE."

"Shhhh," Meredith shushed her insomniac friend. "Don't talk that madness around here. We've got enough to deal with."

"Well it's the truth isn't it," Cristina said in her normal moody and superior manner, "Our corpses will be half-eaten by wolves by the time they figure out where the hell we are. Why does this happen? Why does shit like this ALWAYS happen?"

"Shut up. Just shut up." Meredith hobbled up, wincing at the pain in her leg. "Quit it right now or I'll have to knock you unconscious."

"Go for it!" Cristina cheered sarcastically, "It'd be the best sleep I've had in 48 hours!"

Meredith turned around and walked away without further rebuttal from frustration. She never realized how pessimistic Cristina was until now. Well she was nearly as bad anyways, but somehow this time she was full of hope. She knew in her heart someone was coming for them. She knew she'd be back in her bed soon with Zola and Lexie and Alex, Jackson and April down the hall from her. She could visualize it. She could feel it. So much that it seemed all too real. She wanted it back so badly that she could almost just scream from anger. Something as simple and routine as an old house filled with friends and loved ones was worth more than a million bucks to her right now.

"Hey…Meredith," Derek called after Meredith. She hadn't even noticed he'd followed her. That's how jumbled her mind was at the moment. Meredith had walked near enough to the cockpit to hear Jerry muttering pained sounds.

"Don't let that get to you," He asserted, "it's just Cristina."

"I know that it's just Cristina being…Cristina but…. What if she isn't wrong? What if we don't get found? What if Zola has to grow up without us?" Meredith's worry got the best of her.

"She won't. We…We will make it through this. We've made it through a helluva lot. This should be a piece of cake," Derek assured and the two laughed at their past memories.

Meredith practically collapsed into Derek's arms, crying for a short moment into his chest. Derek enjoyed his wife's embrace before something wafting in the air caught his attention. He sniffed heavily, breathing in an intoxicatingly bad yet familiar scent. Once more to double-check before confirming his discovery and three short words formed at the end of his tongue, "I smell gas,"

Meredith lifted her head, taking in his words, and sniffed the air as well. "Me…Me too,"

Derek pushed Meredith behind him and looked around quickly, "Der, what're you…" Meredith was cut off.

"It's gasoline. Jet engine fuel to be exact."

"What does that mean?" Meredith asked in confusion, not putting the two pieces of the puzzle together.

"It means…" Derek turned to her without completing his thought. "Hey Jerry," He called out.

"Yeah," Jerry retorted weakly with a cracked voice.

"Can you smell the gas?"

"Derek, what's it mean?" Meredith asked again, tugging on his jacket, pressing for information.

"It means," Just as Derek began to tell her a spark ignited in the air under the cockpit, "Run!" Derek could only say before lunging at his wife and rolling down the grassy plain towards the others as the cockpit burst into flames, engulfed by the explosion, taking poor Jerry along with it.

As Meredith and Derek stared up at the damage, covered in soot and fresh cuts, the others joined in disbelief. Arizona was the first to shout, "Oh my God, Jerry!" knowing that he was now dead.

(Short and sweet chapter. Sorry for the long wait…I've had no motivation cos im still so mad at the turnout of the show. I'll continue writing my fantasy endings though! Next chapter soooooooon)


	9. Chapter 9: The helicopter

"Everybody move!" Derek shouted above the roar of the open flames.

The injured team tried their best to hobble away from the sight, scooting on the ground slowly but surely. Derek had to pull Lexie, who was still unconscious in the sleeping bag, and Meredith and Cristina teamed up to pull Mark away.

"Help! Fire! Please save us!" Cristina practically dropped Mark on the ground and began screaming aimlessly at the sky in her psychotic state.

As Arizona sat back down on the ground, crying from the mixture of pain in her leg and sadness from the loss of Jerry, she let all of her emotions pour and broke out into a sloppy fit of tears.

"Someone has to be able to see the fire. They've got to come." Derek assured with his hypotheses.

And a few moments later as the fire began to simmer down; ending its spread, the sound of a helicopter could be heard.

"Oh my God. Oh my….They're here! They're really here. We're saved! I'm going home." Cristina cried with joy at the sight and sound of the rescue team.

The copter began to lower into an empty plain just a few yards from them. The surgeons cheered as ecstatically as they possibly could. As the far-away people began to filter out of the chopper, Cristina ran to them, anxious to get onto the plane and fly to safety. With the others it wasn't as easy, because most of them were not quite as mobile as Cristina. Stretchers were unloaded and people were loaded onto them. Before the surgeons knew it they were dangling on the fine edge between conscious mind and an unconscious one as they sedatives began to kick in. They had to be administered because the thought of going back in the air in a metal death trap had upset the more awake surgeons. As they floated away in the emergency rescue helicopter, away from the field that had been their home for countless hours, Hunt received the call. Before the surgeons had been knocked out for the flight Derek had given them contact information and details so they could gather information on the incident.

The call came as a shock yet almost a relief to Chief Hunt. It finally concluded the question of where the missing surgeons were. Although the conclusion wasn't one he hoped for, the pilot had said all the surgeons had been retrieved and were alive at least. Only the pilot of the plane was known dead due to the explosion. He had mentioned the fact that two had been found already comatose. That frightened Hunt, but he did not press for names. Perhaps the man hadn't even learned of their names yet. It didn't matter to him. But he couldn't help worry that one of those two were Cristina. It was a 33 percent chance of it being her. But what does comatose mean? Anyone can come out of a coma. He'd seen countless people come back from the long slumbers. In fact he'd seen a man injured on the battlefield from a grenade explosion go into a coma for four months and then wake up asking if the frontline had been cleared yet. He'd seen medical miracles every day. Even so the worry flowed through him. And the wait was the hardest part. The surgeons were being flown to the closest hospital. The pilot said he'd call back and once that call came, it would be time for Hunt to go meet up with them. His own men and women, dead or alive. Hurt or healthy. He had no idea. Not yet at least.


	10. Chapter 10: In the Hospital

Once the call came through Hunt all but jumped into his car, leaving his Chief duties behind for the moment to drive all the way up to the hospital in which his surgeons were rushed to. It was hard to abandon his job, keeping secrets from the entire hospital and staff but he knew it would be the only thing to keep the situation calm. The drive was long and seemed endless. During which his thoughts wandered to a horrifying place of dismay and worry. He mostly thought of Cristina. And prayed for her well-being. But of course he also felt fear for that of the other surgeons. They too were his friends and colleagues. People he spent most of his time with. People he shared both good and bad memories. People who made up most of his life in all honesty. Without them there would definitely be a deep void to fill.

Hunt drove through the darkening sky, looking through only a small slit on his windshield between the wipers that were furiously propelling to keep the heavy rain cleared of the glass window. A low ambling thunder could be heard from far ahead. At the same time it struck near the hospital containing the surgeons and Cristina nearly jumped out of her bed from fear, reminded of the booming explosion of the cockpit, which had taken Jerry's life. To Hunt this was merely a storm.

Lexie, Mark, Arizona, and Derek had been rushed immediately into surgery. Meredith and Cristina's wounds had been minor ones so they hadn't needed special care. They were now placed in the same room, waiting impatiently for news of their friends.

"Cristina…I'm scared. What if some of them….Don't make it," Meredith choked on her words.

Cristina didn't answer. She stared at the wall instead, providing no comfort to Meredith. Meredith understood that it was her way of coping. Even if it was a crummy one. She accepted this and turned over on the shifty bed to stare out the door, hoping that they'd be rolling someone out on a stretcher soon. Anyone of them would do. Derek…Lexie…Mark….Arizona. She just needed to know that they'd be alright. She couldn't take one more second of not knowing.

"Excuse me!" She grabbed the attention of the young woman in blue scrubs that had been checking in on her every so often. "Please, my friends. Can you tell me anything?"

"I haven't been into the OR of any of your friends' ma'am. But I can go check for you know if you'd like." She answered sweetly, showing a small curved smile on her bright pink lips. Her hair was short and straight, a rich blonde that tucked right under her chin. Her eyes were bright and blue. Light freckles dabbled all over her creamy complexion. Meredith envied her at the moment. So fresh and new. An intern with not a trouble in the world. She probably graduated on top of her class. Has a supportive mother and father. A perfect boyfriend. Meredith almost felt hate towards her, and for no reason whatsoever. She looked at her and thought of Lexie, who just a few years ago had, been that happy and oblivious as an intern. Now where was she?

The girl then walked away to receive news of the patients and as Meredith watched her leave she saw the scowling face of Owen Hunt pop into her panorama. He was basically sprinting, his scruffy hair was disheveled from the pouring hair, his jacket was thrown carelessly over his work clothes and as he ran quickly his wet shoes squeaked horridly against the floor.

"Meredith, Cristina!" He screamed in joy as he busted into the room. Cristina's emotion barely changed. She was still in a state of shock and delirium. The doctor's had induced her into a sleep earlier in the day. Once she'd awakened she stayed in that unchanged state.

Hunt sat beside Cristina, looking at her lovingly, but Cristina did not respond. He tried talking to her, he brushed his hand throw her hair. He even hugged her. Nothing worked. Nothing could get her to crack.

"Hunt, give it up. She's been like that all day," Meredith gave him the depressing news.

"Oh God. The others? What're their states? And you...Are you alright?" He then questioned.

"I'm fine. Just bumps and bruises compared to the others. Derek's hand is destroyed, Mark had cardiac tamponade, Arizona's leg is really bad. And Lexie….She," Meredith couldn't finish her sentence. She broke into tears.

Hunt stood up from the edge of Cristina's bed and cautiously moved to Meredith. He knew their relationship was rocky. Meredith never liked him much. He understood that and respected it, but right now he knew that Meredith needed a friend. She needed a comforting shoulder to lean her head upon. So he grabbed her in a consoling hug. To his surprise Meredith actually accepted it. She threw herself into his chest, crying heavily. Her whole body trembled.

"Mrs. Grey," The voice of the young intern woman returned.

Meredith and Hunt both looked up at her in unison.

"I've received new of your husband. He's being brought out of the OR right now." She said with a grin and then turned to leave.

"Wait! The others?" Meredith pressed.

"Uhh…Well Dr. Robbins is being brought back because it hasn't been decided whether or not the leg needs amputation. Dr. Sloan and Grey will be a little bit longer since they had the more serious injuries."

"Thank you Miss," Meredith thanked.

"Not a problem…Is Dr. Grey…Your sister?" She asked.

"Half sister," Meredith answered.

"I'm very sorry that this had to happen to you. To all of you. I couldn't imagine what I'd go through if I lost my sister. She means the world to me,"

Meredith gave a quick fake-smile to get the nurse to leave and then threw her head back on the pillow. Hunt had gotten up and moved to the chair in this period of time to keep things less awkward. Just minutes later Meredith saw Derek being wheeled in the hallway.

"Oh my God Derek!" She called out, but he was still unconscious from the anesthesia.

"I'll go talk to the doctors," Hunt informed and walked out into the hallway.

"Pardon me, Doctors!" Hunt got their attention. "I'm Chief Owen Hunt with Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital. My surgeons were the ones that went down with the plane."

"Ah yes, Doctor Hunt. I'm Doctor Wells. Trauma surgeon," The man introduced.

They casually, yet quickly shook hands as Hunt followed the gurney. "We're just moving Doctor Shepherd into room 302. Will that be problematic with the wife? Because we can always switch her into his room."

"I think that would be best." Hunt confirmed.

"Consider it done," Wells answered. And with that Hunt turned around to gather news on the remaining three surgeons.


	11. Chapter 11: News of the Surgeons

Meredith sat patiently and quietly in the hospital bed next to Derek's, watching as he slept. She studied the gentle rising and falling of his chest and listened to his peaceful breathing. He looked like an angel when he slept. He had a small smile on his sweet voice. One that could make Meredith too smile. She was eager for him to awake. She longed to hear his voice again. She could hear him slightly murmuring as he dreamed.

At the moment it was as if all her troubles vanished. No one else was in surgery holding onto their lives. It was just her and him. Meredith couldn't help but wonder about Zola. She'd wished that Hunt had brought her with him, but knew that would have been insane to do such a thing.

"Mrs. Grey," She suddenly heard. The intern was back.

"Any news?" Meredith immediately responded.

The intern had already come back twice to say that Mark was out of surgery and that Arizona was out of surgery and that the two were stable. But Meredith was still awaiting the news of Lexie.

"It's your sister,"

"Oh God…is she?" Meredith asked feeling a heat surge through her body.

"She's alive Mrs. Grey. Just being taken out of surgery, she did just fine. Her vitals are stabile. Everything went as planned. She sure is a fighter."

"Thank you so much," Meredith cried with joy at the news, "Can I…Can I see her?"

"Of course Mrs. Grey. I'll go check right now. As soon as they settle her down into her room then I'll come back for you and escort there myself." The kind and gentle intern whose name was Brenna Carlyle, spoke to Meredith.

As she walked away Meredith wondered to herself, were we ever that nice as interns? Perhaps this was like Derm, where there wasn't as much stress put down on the staff. They probably didn't have their surgeons involved in plane crashes and shootings every other week.

"Hmmph," Derek made a murmur.

Meredith turned her attention toward him and whispered, "Derek, Der are you awake?"

"hmmm," He said.

"It's me Meredith. I'm right here waiting Hun."

"Mer," He finally spoke actual words.

"Yes Derek it's me!" Meredith nearly jumped out of the bed with excitement.

"Is everyone?"

"They're fine," Meredith answered before he finished his sentence.

"Oh thank God. I really thought we were going to lose some of them."

Meredith got up from her bed, which she was supposed to do, and walked over to Derek to see him up close.

"Derek I was so afraid," Meredith stroked his hair as they gazed into each other's eyes.

"We're safe now," He reached his good hand towards her and they interlocked fingers.

Callie received the call from Hunt as soon as she was getting out of work. Her first instinct was to get Sofia, and Zola piled into the car. Within in a few minutes' drive they arrived at the hospital.

Callie knew they'd want to see her so out of kindness she brought her along. During the awkward drive up, where Callie barely focused on the round and was more concerned with her friends, her mind wandered to Arizona, and Mark, and Lexie too. She hoped Arizona was alright. And wondered what kind of injuries she sustained. And she pondered Mark's health as well. Was anyone…Dead? She had no idea. With Julia in mind she couldn't help but ponder the whole Mark and Lexie thing. Usually after life-threatening things they ended up back together in some period of time. Would that happen again?

Callie found a close parking spot and ran into the hospital with Zola and Sofia in a stroller. Callie first went to Derek and Meredith, said a few words, handed off Zola and then went straight for Arizona.

Callie fell to her knees beside the bed. Arizona was unconscious.

"Nurse. Nurse," Callie stopped a young man walking by, "Sir, please can you tell me about my wife?" She asked. The man seemed startled at the word wife but then accompanied her back into the room. He flipped open Arizona's chart and read back the information while Callie bounced Sofia in her arms.

Callie then propped Sofia up on the edge of the hospital bed and stroked Arizona's hair. She looked pained in her anesthetic sleep. Callie hoped Arizona's leg would be alright. It looked dangerously broken. And infected for sure. The surgeons tried their best to fix it without amputation, but would it be enough?

After spending a sufficient amount of time with Arizona, Callie wandered around with Sofia weighing her down and finally came across Mark's room. He had a tube hooked into his mouth. Callie was immediately worried. The heart surgeon announced that he had cardiac tamponade in the field. He corrected the impromptu surgery. Although the heart was healthy and Mark was stable, he hadn't woken up and there were no possibilities.

"I'm more concerned with that other surgeon that they helicopter in. Our trauma surgeon operated on her." The male surgeon with receding hair and framed glasses informed.

"Whoa whoa whoa….Which…surgeon? Doctor Grey?" Callie thought of the only plane crash survivor she hadn't checked on yet.

"Yes an Alexandra Grey. Real bad from what I hear." The doctor responded.


	12. Chapter 12: A few Days Later

Two days passed by and the surgeons were transported back to their home town of Seattle, where they would be kept in the hospital they worked. Except this time as patients. Their arrival was something awkward for the entire hospital staff, even patients. It was such a tragedy, even complete strangers couldn't bear but tear-up at the thought of people who risked their lives everyday being put through such hell while trying to save someone.

Little had changed in this time. Arizona had awoken once or twice and Mark had mumbled sleepy words but other than that not much. Cristina stayed silent and depressed, not able to cope with the shock. Meredith and Derek stayed in their room spending quality time with Zola and Lexie…Lexie remained unchanged.

Everyone was feeling pretty down. The mood of the hospital was atrocious. It emanated through the entire facility. A deep glum of pessimism and cynicism floated in the air.

Julia sat beside Mark waiting for him to keep his eyes open long enough to say hello. In his sleep he'd mumble things like help and save her and he'd call out Sofia's name. He'd even get into screaming fits out gibberish at times. This frightened Julia but she stayed even so. And finally the waiting paid off. She watched Mark's eyelids rapidly flutter and then bam, they popped wide open. He gasped and then searched for air, as if he'd forgotten how to breathe.

In his delirious stage when Julia cried Mark I love you, Mark didn't give her such a satisfactory answer.

"I love Lexie. I loved Lexie. I…I" He stumbled. Julia blubbered like a baby. Her relationship had gone nowhere. The man she loved, wanting a different woman. In anger and confusing, mixed with sadness and rejection Julia fled the hospital and didn't return. Before Mark could get out another word, she'd packed her things from their apartment and ran off to live with a fellow surgeon and friend.

Moments later when Derek had gone into Mark's room after hearing news of his consecutively conscious state, he sat beside Mark with a grim face even though he felt some bit of joy from his friend's apparent health. His arm was casted and kept from moving, which made him uncomfortable virtually a hundred percent of the time.

Mark's first frantic words were, "I couldn't save her. I tried but I couldn't do it. She's gone."  
"What're you talking about? Lexie? She's alive Mark. Lexie is alive. She hasn't woke up but she's still alive," Derek assured.

Mark's facial expression was so surprised. A tear rolled down his cheek and he closed his eyes for a split second. But that single second lulled him back into a reverie-filled sleep until the morning.

Since then Arizona had stayed awake for a straight fourteen hours, talking to Callie between her tears. Her leg was causing her immense pain, but she was too head-strong to let it get hacked off without her fighting.

Meredith exchanged rooms roaming from her own, to Cristina, to Lexie, and occasionally even into Arizona or Mark's room. She didn't have bad injuries so her days were spent wandering aimlessly and out of boredom until she and Derek could finally return to their own home.

All the surgeons received frequent visits from the Chief, from Richard, Bailey, April and Jackson, Callie, Alex and basically the rest of the staff. All of which came in teary-eyed to see their friends so hurt. Hunt was a wreck. Dealing with the crisis was not easy. He was under so much stress that he seemed like a different person altogether. Bailey finally let her emotions go. She tried not to show it, but she too genuinely cried. These people were her babies, the people she put her strength and knowledge into to educate. Along the way they of course all became acquainted. It was hard to see each other like this.

"Lexie. Let me see her. Please," Mark whined weakly to Derek.

"Can he?" Derek asked Bailey. Bailey looked sadly down at Derek.

"I don't see why not." She answered without hope.

They carefully placed Mark in the wheelchair. He was grey and looked like an old man. His bags were incredible, his face wouldn't show a fraction of a smile, his body looked weak and hunched over. Once he saw Lexie it nearly became worse. From the hallway he could tell that it was bad. He was already crying when they wheeled him through the door.

They stopped him right next to her bed. Mark reached out and held her hand. She was still comatose, hooked to machines. Mark sniffled, clearly the lump in his throat and holding back more hot tears.

"Can she come out of it?" He asked straightforwardly.

No answer.

He repeated himself, turning towards Derek and Bailey with demanding yet saddened eyes.

"No promises," Was all Bailey offered as an answer. Mark nodded, taking in her words as he wiped his running nose on his arm.

"She's going to. I know it." Mark replied, not accepting the probable doubt. "God saved her that day for a reason. Why else would he have kept her alive and well this long? If he wasn't heartless then he would've let her die under that wreck,"

Derek had never heard Mark speak so strongly about faith. He was desperate though. Even so he sounded genuine and sweet. Both of them were deeply moved by his assurance in God. Although they were skeptical.


	13. Chapter 13: the Decision for Amputation

A long spell of time passed without Mark even mentioning Julia, when he finally did Derek simply stated that he hadn't seen her, and that was the end of the conversation. Just minutes later he again spoke up and asked Derek, "How many days has it been since we were rescued?"

"Six," Derek informed.

And the next day the hospital held a prayer for Lexie. All sorts of people in the hospital prayed for her and a local pastor came into her hospital room to hold a prayer meeting. Thatcher, Meredith, Derek, Bailey and Richard were present in the room. Callie had wheeled mark in as well. They all stood in the dimly lit room listening to the preacher speak words of wisdom in hopes of Lexie's survival.

After the ceremony was over Meredith rushed out of the room avoiding Thatcher and went into Cristina's room in anger.

"Cristina," She screamed in the doorway, "Look at me,"

Cristina turned her head. "What?" She cynically said.

"I need a friend right now. My sister is dying. You're never there for me. Everyone in this whole hospital is depressed. I'm going crazy. I can barely enjoy the company of my own husband and child cos I just want to go home." Meredith yelled out of frustration.

Cristina said nothing, she turned her head and looked back out the window.

Meredith walked over to her and turned her face so that they were looking each other in the eye.

"You need to snap out of this,"

"I can't" Cristina fired back.

"Why not?" Meredith yelled, not understanding.

"Because!" Cristina sat up, getting nearer to Meredith's face. "Do you know what it was like for me? Staying awake for days! Listening at night to the wolves near you, praying they weren't hungry enough to attack. And not being able to see because it's as dark with your eyes open as it is with them closed! Because I do. I have been through so much trauma from this friggin hospital, that I can't take it. I am packing my bags and getting out of here."

"Not if you don't pass the psych evaluation," Meredith calmly stated, and walked out.

"You deal with her," Meredith then said to Hunt as she passed him in the hallway. But she knew he wouldn't. He'd barely entered her room in the past six days. Out of fear perhaps. Meredith knew her statement would be mocking. That's why she said it. Because at the moment she still hated Hunt. He'd cheated on her. And lied. He deserved this treatment in her eyes. Because he would carry on, but Cristina would not.

Meredith hobbled around the hospital with her walker. The staff said it was frowned upon for her to walk around as a patient but she knew her way, and she wasn't going to stay stuck in a hospital bed again.

"Meredith!" She heard a loud calling. Derek. "Meredith, quit roaming around. Stay put for one minute.

He had Zola in his arms. And she immediately felt bad for abandoning them. She sat down next to Derek, who had Zola sitting in his lap. A fuzzy beard had grown in and his arm was wrapped in a sling. He looked like hell. Afraid that Mark and Lexie could die any minute. Arizona was facing amputation and Cristina was in her state. Meredith took Zola from Derek and bounced her up and down. Zola smiled so innocently as she sucked n her fingers. Meredith wished things would go back to the why they were before. She took those moments for granted…And now everything had gone to hell.

"She's crashing!" Meredith heard in the hallway.

"What's going on?" Meredith asked. Her and Derek both peered into the hallway simultaneously.

Meredith picked out Alex in the crowd, "Alex, what's going on? Is it Le…"

"No it's Arizona," Alex cut her off by spinning around with an annoyed face and then sprinted away.

Meredith handed Zola back to her husband after an all too brief family moment and then tried to quickly follow Alex with her limp getting in the way. Once she caught up and was in the room she was astounded to see Alex hurriedly trying to save her. He and some other staff members were yelling back and forth when Alex screamed, "We have to cut it off. The leg. It'll save her life. We have to,"

After that ultimate decision they began moving her and Meredith had to step out of the way. Everything was just moving so fast. She was just so astounded that she stood idly by and said or did nothing. After that intense moment she then headed back to the room and told Derek what she'd seen and heard.

"Everything is wrong," Derek said in depression.

"I know," Meredith agreed with a sigh.

"I just can't wait until we can get out of this place. I want to go home," Derek said sounding childish.

"Me too," Meredith agreed once again.


	14. Chapter 14: Good Morning

Another week passed by. Derek and Meredith had been discharged. Arizona was weakly and reluctantly recovering from her amputation. Mark was slowly progressing in healing from his heart surgery, but was only weakening himself with depression over Lexie's unresponsive state. After a long spell Cristina became fully lucid and left the hospital. And by left, she actually left. Quit and packed her bag in a matter of days. Then headed off to her job offer elsewhere. Meredith was surprised by her sudden move, but tried not to let it affect her. She was busier worrying about Derek and Zola and lexie. She stayed home to care for her family and only returned to the hospital when she wished to visit her sister as courtesy of her additional two week leave. THe hospital seemed understaffed without the 6 surgeons from the crash. Soon new interns would be arriving and yet some of the surgeons wouldn't even be back to work in time...Some might never be back to work in fact.

On the special day, fourteen days after the surgeons had been brought back to Seattle Grace after the crash, Meredith decided to venture back out of the house while Derek napped. SHe took Zola out with her, dressed in a cute red raincoat and matching boats and wandered back into the lobby of Seattle Grace.

"Meredith Grey, what're you doing here so early?" Bailey asked, noting that it was only 11 am and MEredith rarely ever showed up to the hospital before 3 when she came in to visit her sister.

"I had some free time...I had this feeling that i should come see Lexie," She responded.

"Luckily you just missed Thatcher,"

Meredith instantly remembered thatcher barging into Lexie's room while Meredith was at her beside to yell at her and accuse her for Lexie's injuries. He hadn't come around once since Meredith and Derek had adopted Zola and the first thing he chose to say to his first born child were curses and cries of selfishness. Meredith didnt even take it personally. She'd been finished with the man long ago and nothing was going to change that, but even so Derek still had to constantly remind her that she had nothing to do with Lexie being harmed in the crash.

After the quick chat with Bailey, Meredith proceeded to Lexie's room, carrying Zola on her hip. Zola playfully and happily murmured her baby talk while playing with her toy as Meredith walked. As soon as Meredith entered the room, Zola screeched "WEXIE!" Even though Lexie was comatose and not herself, Zola could still recognize her in seconds. She'd had such a strong bond with her aunt that she was like a second mother to her.

Meredith set Zola down on the bed, atop of Lexie. She playfully talked to her aunt, too young to understand the problem. She just kept saying, "Aunt Wex, wake up. It's time to play,"

Meredith heard a knock as she tidied the room. She turned to see who it was and found it to be Alex.

"hey, Alex," Meredith casually responded to his intrusion, "Where's Mark today?"

"I told him he wasn't allowed to come until he finished all his breakfast . He's been working on it for about an hour now."

"poor guy," Meredith confirmed.

"Yeah. He needs more rest. He sits up straight in those chairs next to her nearly all day. It isn't good for him. Especially after recovering from major surgery," Alex kept the conversation going.

"Listen I know that things have been a little weird between us,"

"I found out," Meredith interrupted him.

"Found out what?" He nervously asked.

"You were supposed to be on that plan. You were supposed to be on the plane instead of my sister. But you didn't want to go so you put her on instead. Why didn't you just tell me?" Meredith answered.

"Tell you what? That i'm the reason your sister is dying! That i'm living with the guilt of putting that innocent girl through hell. Did you really want me to tell you that? How me, a worthless piece of shit gets to life and walk away pain free while Lexie, an actually worthwhile, loved human being is lying in a bed?" Alex suddenly screamed in a rage of emotion from his guilty conscience.

Once he quieted down both Meredith and Alex heard a soft muttering. A pained murmur coming from behind them and then Zola cheerfully shouted, "Good mo'ning Wexie!"

Meredith whipped around to see her sister's eyes flutter open.


	15. Chapter 15: Awake?

Suddenly Lexie's eyes popped all the way open with a look composed of fear confusion and pain. Meredith rushed to her bedside and pulled Zola off of her sister's lap. Alex yelled out the doorway, "I need Chief Hunt and Doctor Bailey,"

Lexie seemed to wince from the screaming; her eyes squinted and then she went into a fit of thrashing. Likely from pain as well as the confusion. Her breath quickened which led the monitors beeping furiously. All the while Alex was trying to help in any way he could while waiting for the other surgeons to arrive.

"Lex, it's me. It's Meredith, your sister. I'm right here. I never got to say this at the crash but….I love you. I love you so much. I don't want to lose you." Meredith coaxed her to fully awaken while holding Zola.

"I think she's going into shock," Alex suggested.

Hunt barged in and pushed through the crowd. "What's happening?"  
"Help her!" Was all Meredith could do as a tear dripped down her cheek. She didn't feel like a doctor right now; she felt like a helpless family member, like most of the guests in hospitals were. As Hunt pushed in front of her she moved back and watched in fear, subconsciously bouncing Zola as she whined.

Bailey made her way in as well, taking control of the weakly handled situation. She practically threw Owen, the Chief of the hospital, to the side to get to Lexie. She called her name. Lexie continued to thrash from the agonizing and extreme pain surging through her frail body. She wasn't fully conscious so nothing seemed real or to make sense to her. All there was was pain, endless endless pain that made her writhe involuntarily. Bailey caught her attention for a second where they shared unbreakable eye contact. Miranda grabbed Lexie's hand between both of hers, squeezing firmly. Lexie forced her fist around Miranda's hand to get leverage. Everyone feels better when they have something to put pressure on. But Lexie choked with the deep pain that shortened her breath, she bit hard into her lip leaving a tiny mark that spewed a line of blood. Miranda felt that stinging sadness that always came with the injury of a colleague. George and Charles's deaths, Izzie's cancer…She didn't want to feel, but she always did.

Now Lexie felt the blood dampen her lips. The taste of the drips that had fallen into her mouth and collected in the back of her throat were tangy and bitter. That taste of one's own blood was always a bitter taste. She wanted to spit it out, but it only bubbled and choked her further. When trying to clear her throat clean of the red liquid again, Lexie found that instead she'd begun screaming. Loudly and fiercely. Definitely a scream of a frightened woman with more pain than she could handle. Her arm felt like a ten pound weight. It would not move from its stiff position, same with her legs. Her stomach felt strained and sliced. Like a thread was pulling her with every wriggle.

Hunt who'd been thrown out of the attendance of Lexie by Miranda Bailey now moved back in….He had to end this. He'd told Alex to leave. Straight up said "go do something else" He wanted to tell Meredith to wait outside but before he could he'd already walked back to Lexie. He picked up something from the drawer next to her and _Stab _plunged a needle into Lexie's IV. A _sedative. _Obviously she needed more time to rest and recuperate. She wasn't ready to be awake. That outbreak showed him as much. He just hoped that she'd be able to reestablish life sometime.

Alex nearly ran into Mark's room. Through a mouthful of food Mark mumbled, "I finished all my oatmeal and food just like you asked. It went cold about twenty minutes ago, but i still muddled through."

"Mark," Alex said with a sly smile.

Mark set aside his bowl and questioningly asked, "what?"

From the long days of sitting up in bed with no real movement Mark's hair had grown long and shaggy and greyed again and his beard grew in to match it as well. He had lost some muscle mass. His frame looked far too skinny.  
"mark...She's awake. She's up! She's okay," Alex proudly stated, ecstatically a waiting Mark's response. "Did you hear me? She's in pain. She hasn't quite snapped out of it yet, but this means she's alive. She's not brain dead."

It took Mark awhile to process the information. Then a wild smile spread over his face and he laughed with joy. He then whipped his blanket away and tried to stand up.

"no, no, no," Alex ran over to him, "Don't get brave now. You're still sick."  
"No i'm not. I'm healed," Mark explained.

"Still be careful big guy," Alex put his legs back on the bed. "gimme a sec. I'll go get a wheelchair,"

Mark watched Alex exit the room and then carefully reached for the phone on the side table. Straining his fingers, Mark dialed Derek's number and then got a sleepy Derek Shepherd on the line.

"Derek?"

"Mark is that you?"

"Yeah. I need a favor. I need you to do something for me. You arent too busy right now are you?" Mark asked.

"No. Just resting. I was gonna come up there myself," Derek yawned.

"Are you fine to drive then?"

"yeah, carefully," derek answered.

"then you can do this for me. Go to my apartment. In my bedroom….Hidden in the sock drawer under every last pair of socks. Inside one pair of grey stockings is a box. A Tiffany's engagement ring, Derek. I need you to bring it to me." Mark held the phone to his ear and quickly spoke.

"Mark what's going on? What are you going to do?" Derek questioned.

"Lexie...Is awake," Mark answered.

Derek gasped and then shouted, "Omigod, That's great. I'm coming right away."

Then the two disconnected and Karev returned with the chair. Mark took one look at it and said, "not yet,"

Alex's face was puzzled, "You were so excited, what happened?"  
"It isn't quite the time yet. Let me mull things over. Let Lexie mull things over. You said she was hurting real bad, I don't want to make things worse. We don't even know what state she's in."

Alex shrugged and then abandoned the chair in the room, "Okay, I'll keep you posted though. I'll go back, if Hunt let's me, and see how she's doing," he informed and then walked out.


	16. Promises

Hours later Mark allowed Alex to wheel him down to Lexie's room. Derke had stopped in with the ring. He told him that Lexie was fine, and was already talking to Meredith. Derek promised to wait with Mark for as long as he needed, and even gave some advice on proposals.

"I know Lexie, she just wants me to get down on one knee. I'll try my best to," Mark joked.

"I was starting to think you were going to waste your life in and out of lesser loves Mark..." Derek admitted, sitting in the chair with his knees akimbo.

"I'm ready Derek..."

And so Alex wheeled Mark through the hospital wing, while all three chatted. Alex tried not to make the situation awkward after all he had kept them apart for awhile. Mark seemed content though, nothing was going to get in his way.

"Do you think I should ask Thatcher first?" Mark asked, pondering everything before his decision was finalized.

"Ask him what?" Derek asked, looking down at his friend. The gray in his skin tone seemed to be draining by the minute, he knew it'd disappear the second Lexie was in his sight.

"For his approval...For the marriage proposal. That's the proper thing right?"

"Perhaps, but I've never asked him," Derek responded.

"Yeah well, even though Meredith is his daughter she isn't really his daughter...Ya know,"

"I guess you're right. Lexie's other sister is in town too you know..." Derek added.

"Molly? I didn't. How long has she been here? I guess I hadn't left my room in awhile...I just wasn't feeling up to it." Mark said sadly.

"She came as soon as she got the news...Which was maybe a week ago. things run differently on the base. She and her daughter Laura are up here. As well as Thatcher. They've been around nearly everyday...just hoping. I think it's put a damper on Mer. She doesn't know how to act around them. She called a few minutes ago and said they showed up when Bailey called them about the news. Meredith thinks that Laura looks a little bit like she did when she was her age. I think that's the real trouble. She sees herself in that girl, cos her daddy's gone most of the time too." Derek rambled.

"I...I've never met Molly and Laura. What do I say to them? Hi, I'm the guy that has given Lexie some of the best and worst days of her life...How the heck are ya?" Mark said sarcastically.

"Just introduce yourself...Lexie used to talk to Molly on the phone for hours. Even when she thought no one was awake or around. I could hear her sometimes, I recall some lengthy conversations about you. Most of them good." Derek informed.

"_most,"_ Mark repeated.

"I heard her too," Alex spoke up, breaking his long silence, "Just a few weeks ago actually. Right before the crash. She told Molly how much she missed you, and that she regretted leaving you so quickly. She's come to terms with all the wrong the two of you have done to the other. She wants to put that all behind her, but she was afraid to tell you. She saw how happy you were with Julia. She saw you having a life with her, so she kept quiet...She wanted you to be happy. And she thought that she could never do that for you,"

"She actually broke down in tears to me over you Mark. The day that you said you missed her..." Derek remembered. "Don't overthink this. You have everything right. Tell her what she wants to hear Mark."  
With that Alex stopped the chair to the side of Lexie's room. "You ready now?" He asked to make sure.

"Wait...I want to meet her sister first." Mark said, looking in through the window at her. From the position they were unseen.

Derek devised a plan. He texted Meredith the instructions, then Derek entered the room and stole Lexie's attention for a brief moment. In that time Meredith told Molly, and she ventured outside for a moment with Laura. Thatcher as well, after saying to lexie _We'll be right back. Just going to get coffee._

As Molly walked outside mark looked down, feeling embarrassed and unsure. Alex nudged his neck and he spoke out, "Hi...I'm Mark Sloan."

"So you're the infamous Doctor Sloan. The one that stole my Lexie's heart." Molly said upon his greeting. Thatcher stood back and smiled.

Laura looked up at her mom and said, "Mommy, why'd he steal Auntie's heart. Is he gonna give it back?"

Molly giggled and said, "That's just a phrase honey,"

Then Thatcher led her around the block for a moment, to give Molly some privacy. Alex stood behind the desk and monitored Mark, just incase he needed help.

"She's talked so much about you. I feel as if we've already met. It's strange that we haven't. It's really strange that I haven't actually even met my other sister. Just once but I didn't know it was her." Molly continued, waiting for Mark, who was speechless.

"I don't know how to say this exactly. I'm sure you know me and Lexie..aren't together anymore." Mark spoke softly.

"Of course I do...I thought I'd never hear the end of it. I think my sister needed a hobby other than surgery, because she sure had enough free time to talk my ear off. It was always good to hear her voice though."  
"When we crashed...I...I was dating someone else. But I never stopped loving Lexie. I just needed to move on with my life before it was too late. i'm getting old. I wanted a family and she wasn't ready for that." Mark began, "That all changed though. When I saw her...Trapped like she was. So defenseless and just scared. I realized that I'd trade away a hundred possible families just as long as I could have her. I've never loved anyone like I loved her. I thought I had, but after her I realized that I really hadn't. And so...When I thought she was dying, I told her I still loved her. I told her we were going to get married and that she would become an amazing surgeon. I just...i came so close to losing her, i don't want to waste another minute living without her. I want to keep my promise." Mark reached into his lap and revealed the almost squealed with delight, but then kept so Lexie wouldn't hear.

"I'm gonna marry her. I bought this ring...A long time ago. Not even because i was ready to propose then and there, I wasn't. We'd only been dating a few months but...I knew. I just knew she was the one that I'd be using this ring for. I knew she was going to be my bride someday, no matter how stubborn she was."

Thatcher reappeared and said, what's going on, when he saw Molly with her hand over her mouth.

"Mr. Grey...It would do me a great service if you'd allow me to marry your daughter Lexie." Mark spoke up with sudden confidence.

Thatcher smiled when he saw the ring box that held a beautiful engagement ring, "I as well." was his response. They both smiled. Mark felt silly proposing in a hospital room, wearing a gown and being pushed by Lexie's ex. He was going to do it anyways. Like he said, not a minute to go by without her at his side.

As the scratching sound of the chair going over the tile alarmed the others, Meredith and Derek fell silent inside the room. Molly, Laura and Thatcher followed in after Mark was pushed up beside lexie.

"Mark," She muttered under her breath, on the verge of tears. She tried to sit up better, but began to struggle, Meredith stood up and propped her up as Derek bounced Zola. Zola and Laura began to talk kid language to each other as mark pulled his thoughts together.

"I thought I'd never see you again Little Grey," Was the first thing he could think. Tears streamed down lexie's pale face. "I almost lost you there. You were so lifeless, for a minute I thought you'd perished. I wouldn't give up though. I found a way to get you free. I held you in my arms and felt the fragment of life you were clinging onto. And I thought maybe you were holding to it _for me_, but when you didn't wake up i thought to myself. This is it, she's brain dead. She's here but she isn't here. I got ill because of that thought. My heart nearly gave out. You were alive though. We made it out of another thing alive...Alive and together. And I know that our love could conquer anything. And it'll conquer this, because I'm not going anywhere. I'll be at your side through it all. Atleast I hope so. I hope you'll let me," Mark began to shuffle in the chair and then finally pulled himself away from it and slowly began to bend down. His knee was finally touching the floor, that was when he pulled out the ring box and opened it in front of her.

Lexie's heart had begun fluttering moments ago, now it was beating faster than a racehorse. She couldn't help but cry and then cover her mouth with her hand in shock.

"Alexandra Caroline Grey...I almost lost you for good. I've lost you so many times, I don't ever want to again. Life is too short for us to stay apart, even when we can't make things work. I''d be better off when we're miserable together, than when I'm happy with someone else. I've had this ring since long before all of our break-ups...in my heart i always knew you'd be my Mrs. Sloan. You're different from the rest Lex. You taught me how to truly love. I never knew I'd full so head over heels for you...But I did. I know we can be happy together. We're _meant _to be happy together. Will you marry me Little Grey?" Mark gave his speech, holding back tears.

Lexie looked into his eyes, the tears reminded him of the moment he thought he was about to lose first nodded and then finally got the word yes to come out of her mouth, "Yes, yes, yes!" She repeated.

Mark smiled, he was on top of the world now. he stood up so quickly, it was as if he'd never had heart surgery. He and Lexie embraced deeply. Everyone else in the room was nearly moved to tears. Thatcher held Molly. Laura and Zola played, oblivious of the heartfelt situation. Derek and meredith held hands, happy for their family. Everyone was good.

Mark slipped the ring onto her finger. She watched him do so with interest, her mouth held open in suspense. Once it was on her hand, she held it closer to examine it. This meant so much more than it seemed. It was just a piece of fancy metal on her finger, it was a token of love. It was an agreement for the forever bond of two people. Suddenly Lexie was reminded of something though.

"What about Julia?" She looked back at Mark.

"You're worth three Julia's put together Lex," He stared deeply into her eyes.

Lex looked down, utterly engrossed in his love. The complement was unlike anything she'd ever heard. She was all he thought about, just as he was all she thought about.

"Only three?" Lexie kept her glance downward and let out an awkward chuckle. Mark laughed as well. Through everything they could still joke. Mark rubbed the side of her face. "She figured it out. She realized that she would never replace you." Mark felt the small cuts that still remained on the side of her face. the one underneath her bangs, toward her temple, would certainly scare, and perhaps the one on her lip too.

"Derek, please tell me she's alright. She's going to be...Fine. Right? Nothing life or death?" Mark looked to his friend for comfort as he stroked Lexie's head, feeling her soft hair.

Derek thought for a moment, "She healed very well. Miraculously actually, but...She isn't 100% better of course. The internal bleeding did some internal damage and became infected against our best attempts. Some non major lung damage. Strain on her heart, nothing serious of course. There's just...Well the damage to her limbs. The legs and one arm. Her legs retained considerable damage, to the spine as well."

"You're saying she might not be able to walk?" Mark interrupted.

"It's possible. There was a small brain contusion that seemed to correct itself with the sleep therapy."  
"Surgery? What about surgery? I promised she'd be an amazing surgeon," Mark looked back down at Lexie, who stared up at him with concern.

"The arm might not regain function. The nerve and muscle damage might have been too great in her arm, as well as in my hand," Derek answered.

Mark immediately felt bad. He was careless towards his friend, but he couldn't bear the thought of Lexie losing who she was...A surgeon.

(Sorry i havent updated in so long! I've been super busy! Sorry to keep you waiting but here it is ! The proposal we've been longing for! Hope it wasn't too crummy. Anyways, leave your thoughts.)


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